Host:What are the effects of teen drinking?

Judith Welles Cousins: The effects of teen drinking and drug use are the following, a teen who uses is less likely to learn how to manage, learn how to accept, learn how to express feelings that they are uncomfortable with. For some teens that's embarrassment, for some teens that's anger, for some teens that's shame, for some teens that, feeling really good about being with a particular girl for instance. So that's one way that alcohol affects teens. It also affects teens in the sense that, teens are more likely than other groups to engage in high risk behavior or risky behavior or impulsive behavior, just because of the nature of that developmental stage. If a teen is using and a teen is drinking, they are more likely to engage in high risk behavior and are more likely to engage in riskier behavior than they would otherwise. What happens is, is that those controls that we have within our brain, within our value system that say, don't do this. It's not a good thing to do. If you are under the influence of alcohol or dugs you are more likely to do it because those inhibitions are lucent. So those are a couple of really important ways that alcohol and drug uses affects teens. Similarly, it can affect teens in school, they are more likely to skip school, they are more likely to go to school late, they are likely to be bored because when you are under the influence of alcohol and drugs you are not able to tap into your own natural resources.

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